A number of Indian players, including big names like Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma see MS Dhoni as a mentor and they all have expressed gratitude for the guidance they have received from him early in their careers. Dhoni captained India for nearly 11 years between 2007 and 2018 and has been captain of Chennai Super Kings since the inaugural 2008 season of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Dhoni is known to keep quite a cheerful demeanour with his teammates outside the playing arena. An example of that could be seen throughout the 2023 season of the IPL in which Dhoni seemed to have a number of funny interactions with all-rounder Deepak Chahar. Dhoni has now opened up about his relationship with Chahar, joking that he may never see the al-rounder mature in his lifetime.
"Deepak Chahar is like a drug, if he is not there, you would think, where is he - if he is around, you would think, why he is here - good part is that he is maturing but he takes time and that is the problem, in my lifetime, I won't see him matured (smiles)," Dhoni said at the launch of 'Lets Get Married', a Tamil film produced by his production company Dhoni Entertainment.
When Dhoni reprimanded Deepak Chahar
Chahar played an integral role in CSK winning their fifth IPL title this year. He recently gave an example of how Dhoni works with his bowlers. "I was bowling in the death overs for the very first time. They never made me bowl in the death because it was not needed. There were bowlers like Shardul and Bravo to bowl the death overs. Now Bravo got injured. It was a critical match," said Chahar in a recent episode of Breakfast with Champions.
{{/usCountry}}Chahar played an integral role in CSK winning their fifth IPL title this year. He recently gave an example of how Dhoni works with his bowlers. "I was bowling in the death overs for the very first time. They never made me bowl in the death because it was not needed. There were bowlers like Shardul and Bravo to bowl the death overs. Now Bravo got injured. It was a critical match," said Chahar in a recent episode of Breakfast with Champions.
{{/usCountry}}Chahar said that he ended up bowling two beamers on the trot and was reprimanded by Dhoni. “He (Dhoni came to me and said ‘you act smart as if you know everything. Why are you bowling in this manner?’ I was thinking that my career was over. Then I gave 5 runs off the next 5 balls and after the match he hugged me,” the pacer said.